Syrian troops backed by war planes battled on Monday to dislodge Islamist rebels from a border crossing and **rthern town in the coastal province of Latakia, heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite mi**rity. Fighters from the Islamic Front and al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front seized the Armenian Christian town of Kasab on Sunday after taking the nearby border crossing in an offensive which follows a string of recent rebel defeats further south. Video footage released by activists showed fighters driving through the largely deserted Kasab, passing a municipal building and a shattered statue of Bashar's father Hafez, who ruled Syria for 30 years until 2000. While the rebel advance has gained only a small pocket of territory, it has put Assad on the defensive and deprived him - at least for **w - of the last border crossing from Turkey into government-held territory.
03-25-2014, 01:07 AM
Syrian forces battle rebels near Turkey border crossing
Syrian troops backed by war planes battled on Monday to dislodge Islamist rebels from a border crossing and **rthern town in the coastal province of Latakia, heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite mi**rity. Fighters from the Islamic Front and al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front seized the Armenian Christian town of Kasab on Sunday after taking the nearby border crossing in an offensive which follows a string of recent rebel defeats further south. Video footage released by activists showed fighters driving through the largely deserted Kasab, passing a municipal building and a shattered statue of Bashar's father Hafez, who ruled Syria for 30 years until 2000. While the rebel advance has gained only a small pocket of territory, it has put Assad on the defensive and deprived him - at least for **w - of the last border crossing from Turkey into government-held territory.
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